EU wrestles with plan to force fingerprinting of migrant children

EU plans that would allow police to forcibly fingerprint migrant children have become the focus of intense wrangling among the bloc’s major institutions.

Under plans to recast the Eurodac system that established a fingerprint database for asylum seekers from outside the EU, the European Commission has proposed letting police take fingerprints from children aged 14 and older. Rights activists have condemned the idea, saying coercion amounts to violence and could traumatize children.

The proposal is the subject of negotiations between the Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament that began in September 2017. The next round of the talks takes place on Wednesday.

The plan is just one of many migration policies that have triggered fierce debate since 2015, when the influx of more than a million people into the Continent catapulted the issue to the top of the European political agenda.

“For the member states this is a matter of migration control, for us it is [about] child protection” — Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, center-right MEP

Defenders of the proposal say fingerprinting can help reunite families who have been separated and trace children who have fallen into the hands of criminal gangs. Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, estimated in 2016 that 10,000 unaccompanied refugee children had gone missing in Europe over the previous two years.

But while politicians across the board agree that taking fingerprints is a useful child protection measure, opinions diverge about what should be done if a child does not want to provide them.

“One of the reasons why children fall through the system is because they do not trust the authorities. If you want to protect them, you have to make sure they feel like they are in a safe environment and using force is not going to help with that,” said Delphine Moralis, secretary-general of Terre des Hommes, a group that campaigns for children’s rights.

Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, a center-right MEP who co-chairs a cross-party group on children’s rights in the European Parliament, said the current proposal is a “significant improvement” on earlier drafts, which would have allowed coercion to be used on children as young as 6.

While her group wants to protect all children under 18, Corazza Bildt said the current draft “would be much better than the current situation, where EU member states can do anything they want based on national law.”

The Commission’s proposal allows for the use of coercion in “duly justified circumstances that are permitted under national law.” Minors between the ages of 6 and 14 can provide their prints on a voluntary basis.

Corazza Bildt said some MEPs from within her own political grouping, the center-right European People’s Party, support the current proposal. Some MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists group also favor the plan while Greens, Socialists and Democrats, and the far-left GUE/NGL are opposed.

Monica Macovei, an ECR politician and the Parliament’s lead MEP on the overhaul of Eurodac, believes fingerprinting will help trace missing children and EU member countries should be able to collect biometric data while “taking into account the best interest of the minor” throughout the procedure, an ECR group spokesman said.

Corazza Bildt said EU governments were the strongest advocates of coercion. “For the member states this is a matter of migration control, for us it is [about] child protection,” she said.

Asked about the use of coercion, a Commission spokesman stressed that fingerprinting children must be carried out “in full respect of their rights and best interests.”

“The Commission, in its proposal for a reform of Eurodac, lowered the age for taking fingerprints and facial images to 6 years precisely to strengthen the protection of children in migration,” the spokesman said.

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glasspix 1

What an absurd nonsensical debate generated by political fundamentalist pseudo charities pretending to worry about pressing kids’ fingers against a portable scanner! What this is about is that most of them would turn out to be adults or ones with criminal records abroad (soon in their host countries) and would make their deportation more likely. And, in the age of Merkel, we cannot have that. What really traumatises people are incidents the like of Bataclan, Nice, Charlie Hebdo, outrages that could have been prevented by effective border controls.

Posted on 4/25/18 | 7:00 AM CEST

Arnold Nussbaum

I consider this absolutely essential.
If the parents cannot look after their children and often allow them to travel unaccompanied across the whole of Europe, then we have to and since they have no papers and no records it is essential to have a single, unalterable proof of who they are.

Posted on 4/25/18 | 9:12 AM CEST

Donal O'Brien

Att Comment

This could only be a German idea
Its the first thing that comes to mind when you hear tagging of Human Beings

Im sure Void Balls would get a job there
The perfect profession for someone of dispic2 nature
You can hear Balls NEXT NEXT NEXT
Yes Balls finds its true Calling

Cheers for Brexit
Allways
DONAL O’ BRIEN

Posted on 4/25/18 | 9:12 AM CEST

Bob Rob

Children need to be fingerprinted and DNA samples taken to determine their age and give them a ID. Then they should be re-united in their home countries ,or third safe country close to it, with any surviving adult family members. This encouraging of child trafficking needs to be stopped. These people have way too many children as it is. If you cannot care for children don’t have them don’t make your children someone else’s problem.